Music

The 2016 Westword Music Showcase is coming up fast, on Saturday, June 25! The one-day festival features national headliners on two main stages, as well as nearly 100 local bands on a dozen stages in Denver’s Golden Triangle. The local performers at the Showcase are drawn from thus year’s nominees…

Courtney Barnett, who dropped out of Project Pabst last month to be the musical guest on the season finale of Saturday Night Live , will be at the Ogden Theatre on Tuesday, November 8. Tickets ($27.50/$40) go on sale on Friday, June 17 at 10 a.m. Grammy-nominated pop star Charlie…

For the last 22 years the Westword Music Showcase has brought national and local music acts together during the summer. This year’s Showcase is on Saturday, June 25.  Coordinating over a hundred performances is tricky and takes months of planning. Ever wonder how we do it?  Westword’s music editor Katie Moulton and Showcase…

Editor’s Note: In advance of Bob Dylan’s concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre this Sunday, June 19, we are taking an in-depth look back at his short but likely formative time in Denver as a young unknown folk singer in the summer of 1960. By Timothy Fritz In the early summer…

The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver is continuing its B­-Side Music Thursdays summer concert series on the MCA rooftop for the 2016 season. Aiming to present “the best up and coming Colorado bands and side projects of well known Denver bands and musicians,” the current schedule makes good on that…

On May 26 at Denver’s Ogden Theatre, a relatively little-known band called Mudcrutch launched its first-ever full-length tour. Mudcrutch, in addition to holding the title of Worst Band Name Ever, has the distinction of being Tom Petty’s first band. This is the crew that honed its chops at Gainesville topless…

What makes a joke funny or a song sound good is subjective; in that respect, comedy and music are aligned. But what happens when comedians and musicians come together on the same bill to perform on the same stage? “A lot of times when it does happen, it doesn’t go…

The Hi-Dive Hullabaloo will return this weekend for two days of music and festivities at the South Broadway venue. The small festival began in 2010 with the simple intention of bringing together bands made up of friends who held like-minded aesthetics but rarely got to play the same bill. Tom…

Nearby lightning and waves of torrential rain pummeled downtown Louisville, on Sunday, June 12, but the storm seemed to disappear right before the show started in the basement of Dona Laurita Gallery known as Down Space. Combining the qualities of a house show and a DIY space (off-the-cuff vibe, relatively…

Like most things that occur for the band, dance-noise duo Church Fire chalks up the connection made to its new record label, Black Box Tapes,  to chance. “It was like everything that happens to us — luck and serendipity and unearned privilege,” says vocalist Shannon Webber. “Hard work is part…

At last year’s Honky Tonk Hodgepodge at Cold Beer New Mexico (aka Colfax Tavern), outside of Cimmaron, New Mexico, a local woman took offense to Bib Tucker and the Liars Club’s attire. That day, the band, which includes singer/guitarist Justin Horrigan, bassist Eric Johnston (of the Outfit), guitarist/pedal steel Tyler…

Colorado will host dozens of music festivals throughout the state over the next four months or so, many tailored to particular genres, whether it be bluegrass, folk, country, EDM or rock. Others run the gamut of styles. We’ve pared it down to ten must-see festivals (listed below in alphabetical order)…

Steely Dan returns to Red Rocks with Steve Winwood opening tonight while DeVotchKa joins the Colorado Symphony again at the venue on Thursday. Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Caravan Palace and Ben Nichols of Lucero are also on tap this week. In festival season settles in, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Country…

This year’s KS 107.5 Summer Jam, which is tonight at Fiddler’s Green, features Fetty Wap with Kid Ink, Ty Dolla $ign, Fabolous, DJ Mustard, YG, E-40 and Kevin Gates. Also tonight, Lettuce headlines Red Rocks, with openers the Wailers, Manic Focus, Pete Rock and Rahzel. The weekend’s lineup also includes Big…

Tool, who’s only slated to play four shows in October so far, will stop at the Pepsi Center on Wednesday, October 26. Reserved tickets ($75-$95) go on sale on Friday, June 10 at 10 a.m. Prophets of Rage is made up of Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Tim Commerford…

Join us on Saturday, June 25, 2016, for the 22nd Westword Music Showcase, featuring Dillon Francis, Cold War Kids, Matt and Kim, HEALTH, New Politics and more, plus 100 local bands and artists. You can get amped for the big event at the Wednesday-night Denver Cruiser Rides on June 15…